An “active terror plot” was reportedly foiled when police authorities shot a 2-year old woman in the arm and stomach before she was rushed to the hospital on a stretcher. In a dramatic video footage, elite Met officers are seen smashing their way into the terraced house in Willesden, north London, at 7pm on Thursday, forcing open the door and running up to the first floor flat belonging to a Somalian family. They threw in CS canisters before “at least six” shots rang across the area, also shattering an upstairs window.
Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Neil Basu said the raid meant an “active” teror plot was foiled. Among those arrested were a 16 year old boy and a 20 year old woman, a man, 20, and a couple, both 28, who were held last night as they arrived at the Willesden house. Also, a woman, 43, was arrested for an address in Kent. All of the are currently held on suspicion of the commission, preparation, and instigation of terrorist acts. The shot woman is however, too ill to be arrested.
A witness who saw the aftermath of the raid, said, “They brought down a lady in a black burka. We saw she had been shot- the paramedics and ambulances that were there, they stripped off her clothing to get access to the wounded areas.” Another said, “Doctors were trying to help her. She was shouting 'Do not touch me, do not touch my body'. The woman had bandages on her left arm and her stomach.” Ruth Haile, 40, who has been living in the area for almost a decade said, “She was injured, she had a wound on her right side and doctors were trying to help her. There was a bandage on the wound. She was lying in the street and there were about five or six people around her, some of them were carrying guns. You could see through the front door, and there was blood everywhere.”
The raid followed the arrest of a 27 year old man with a “bag full of knives” in Whitehall. However, Scotland Yard said they are not linked. Basu said, “Due to these arrests that have been, in both cases I believe that we have contained the threats that they pose.” He reassured the public that officers were working around the clock to identify would-be terrorists. “There are constant acts of immense bravery by officers, armed and unarmed, those that the public see, where our officers run towards danger. But a huge amount of unseen work that the public will never see behind the scenes.”
